The most recent orogenic event in South-West Africa—the Damaran Episode—is reflected by consistent radiometric ages in the general range 450–550 (570) million years (hereinafter m.y.), yielded by regional metamorphic and granite-pegmatite minerals from orogenically deformed Upper Proterozoic rocks in two structurally continuous zones: (1) a northeast–southwest trending segment from the coast to the Kalahari Desert; and (2) a roughly north–south trending segment along the coast. The preponderance of ages within this range from correlative sequences of deformed and metamorphosed rocks in central and southern Africa, and in crystalline rocks associated with deformed correlatives in western Africa, demonstrates the regional extent of this episode. In addition, similar age patterns have been obtained from zones of gneisses, such as the Mozambique and Zambesi Belts of eastern and central Africa, in which Upper Proterozoic rocks have not been widely recognized. The tectono-thermal kinship of the zones of deformed Upper Proterozoic rocks and of the Mozambique and Zambesi Belts is indicated by the similarity of their age patterns and by their apparent geographical and structural continuity. Together these regions define a sinuous system of mountain chains—the Damarides—which, in part at least, “emerged” in Cambro-Ordovician times from an Upper Proterozoic—Lower Paleozoic mobile zone. In southern Africa this mobile zone separated and partly encircled two stable areas, termed the Congo and Kalahari Cratons, which have been stable since the Kibaran Episode ca. 1100 m.y. ago. The evidence of known orogenic intrusives and late- or syn-orogenic pegmatites and migmatites, suggests that the main pulse of the Damaran Episode took place 500 to 550(570) m.y. ago. In addition to the Damaran Episode, there is evidence that the Upper Proterozoic—Lower Paleozoic mobile zone was affected by an older episode, the Katangan Episode. This identification is based largely on U-Th-Pb ages from Katanga Province and on a limited number of similar Rb-Sr, U-Th-Pb, and K-Ar ages from western Africa and parts of the Mozambique Belt. The significance and extent of the effects of the Katangan Episode are still uncertain; its relationship to the Damaran Episode may, however, be similar to that of the Acadian and Taconian orogenies in the northern Appalachians. The evidence favors the retention of the term “Katangan Episode” for tectono-thermal events reflected by ages in the range 580–680 m.y.